Depending on the results of a lawsuit pending in Jefferson County civil court, the coach may soon get his wish.

Long simmering speculation that the famed Alabama football coach was associated with plans to build a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Irondale was confirmed Monday when attorneys for Hoover's Crown Automobiles filed notice of intent to subpoena Saban in a quest to find any documentation that he was planning to own or operate such a business.

"My partner and I have entered into a letter agreement with Mercedes Benz to open a new dealership in Irondale. We are honored to join the Mercedes family and are extremely excited about the benefits this dealership will bring to thecitizens of Birmingham, Irondale and surrounding areas," Saban said in a statement provided by his attorney, Bobby Plott.

Joe Agresti, who operates a Baton Rouge Mercedes-Benz dealership, said Saban and his wife, Terry, will be his partners in the dealership. Although land has been purchased near Irondale's Grants Mill Road auto mall, Agresti said Monday construction is delayed until the court case is resolved.

"We are very much hoping to open a Mercedes dealership" on the land, Agresti said. "We don't know when we're going to start building."

Saban, Agresti said, has long been a Mercedes enthusiast and years ago expressed an interest in opening a dealership. Saban contacted Agresti about partnering for the new dealership although for the coach "99 percent of the man's working hours are spent on the football team," Agresti said.

"He told me, 'I don't have a minute to run it, but I love the brand,'" Agresti said.

So if and when it opens, will the dealership bear Saban's name?

"I sure wish it could, but Mercedes-Benz doesn't allow that," Agresti said. The dealership instead will likely bear the name Irondale or Birmingham, he said.

Saban will help market the property, give motivational speeches to employees and appear at events to show appreciation to customers, Agresti said. The coach will frequently record new ads for the dealership, Agresti said.

"You'll get to see his smiling face on TV often," Agresti said.

Having the coach attached to the deal is exciting for Agresti who is opening his first Alabama dealership after working in Baton Rouge for 10 years.

"He has a tremendous national marketing cache," Agresti said. "His Alabama marketing cache is on a whole other level."

For his part, Agresti said he thinks Saban recognized that he has been a good steward of the Mercedes brand.

"Coach chose me to be his partner because I'm going to be a good steward of his important brand as well," Agresti said.

As for the lawsuit that has plans for the dealership on hold, Agresti said he doesn't know many details.

"It has nothing to do with coach and myself. We're not named in the suit," Agresti said. Saban's attorney, Bobby Plott, said he will comply with any subpoena and referred other questions to Agresti.

A status review has been set for March 7.

Agresti said he doesn't have an estimate for how much of an investment the new facility will require but says it will be "big, beautiful" and employ about 75 people.

Irondale Mayor Tommy Joe Alexander, announcing in December the dealership was coming to the city, said officials expect $400,000 in revenue for the city in the dealership's first year of operation and $700,000 by the third year. The city will pave a 1,700-foot road leading to the new dealership, which Alexander said will likely cost Irondale a little more than $1 million.

"Lots of good comes out of this," Agresti said, "for Irondale, metro Birmingham, and the coach gets to do something interesting for him. It's almost unbelievable. The guy is literally fulfilling a life-long promise to himself."

In multiple past interviews, Saban has said he was bound for a car dealership career after graduating from Kent State in 1973. Terry, however, still had a year to go at Kent State and he needed a job until she graduated.

Kent State head coach Don James asked Saban to stay on as a graduate assistant, something the future national championship winner had not wanted to do. James passed away in October.

"I decided to go to graduate school for one year so she could graduate and we could move on," Saban said in 2008. "I was going to go to General Motors school to be a general manager, so I could own a car dealership one day. But I really liked it and I just continued to do it, because it wasn't like working."